Monthly Archive

In preparation for putting the new Mexican beaded lizards on exhibit, we moved the gila monsters into the lizard community. Already residing there were two blue spiny lizards, one chuckwalla, and one desert box turtle. With any animal introduction, whether it’s animals of the same species or not, there’s always some risk. We made sure that there was plenty of room for the smaller lizards to climb up high if there was trouble and then began to add the gilas. We added six gila monsters to the exhibit and they all immediately began to explore their new home. They were climbing on rocks and sticking out their tongues everywhere to investigate! One of the blue spiny lizards got a lick and quickly ran away! The smaller lizards seemed nervous about these new animals in their home, but adjusted quickly with no problems. One of the employees even witnessed a gila monster and the box turtle sitting side by side. You’ll have to stop by and check out how the relationships grow between everyone!

Everywhere you turn right now, there’s another employee out with an animal. We have people giving animal demonstrations up at the park entrance and throughout the zoo. There are programs going on and enrichment activities for some of our larger animals. Yesterday the bears got to rip up a paper mache bee hive out of the tree that was filled with honey! There will be pictures coming soon of that.
The season is getting busier as there are also new faces at the zoo. We are still in the middle of training some new people on how to work with all of our animals here. When we’re not training new employees or working on our new exhibits, we’ve been busy with animal enrichment. I’ll be posting a series of pictures of some of our animals enjoying their special activities…check back soon!